"The Life, The Health, The Wellbeing"

Most athletes know that getting enough rest after exercise is essential to high-level performance, but many still over train and feel guilty when they take a day off. The body repairs and strengthens itself in the time between workouts, and continuous training can actually weaken the strongest athletes.

Rest days are critical to sports performance for a variety of reasons. Some are physiological and some are psychological. Rest is physically necessary so that the muscles can repair, rebuild and strengthen. For recreational athletes, building in rest days can help maintain a better balance between home, work and fitness goals.

In the worst-case scenario, too few rest and recovery days can lead to overtraining syndrome – a difficult condition to recover from.

What Happens During Recovery?

Building recovery time into any training program is important because this is the time that the body adapts to the stress of exercise and the real training effect takes place. Recovery also allows the body to replenish energy stores and repair damaged tissues. Exercise or any other physical work causes changes in the body such as muscle tissue breakdown and the depletion of energy stores (muscle glycogen) as well as fluid loss.

Recovery time allows these stores to be replenished and allows tissue repair to occur. Without sufficient time to repair and replenish, the body will continue to breakdown from intensive exercise. Symptoms of overtraining are

1. You repeatedly fail to complete your normal workout.

I’m not talking about normal failure. Some people train to failure as a rule, and that’s fine. I’m talking failure to lift the weights you usually lift, run the hill sprints you usually run, and complete the hike you normally complete. Regression. If you’re actively getting weaker, slower, and your stamina is deteriorating despite regular exercise, you’re probably training too much. Note, though, that this isn’t the same as deloading. Pushing yourself to higher weights and failing at those is a normal part of progression, but if you’re unable to lift weights that you formerly handled with relative ease, you may be overtrained.

2. You’re losing leanness despite increased exercise.

If losing fat was as easy as burning calories by increasing work output, overtraining would never result in fat gain – but that isn’t the case. It’s about the hormones. Sometimes, working out too much can actually cause muscle wasting and fat deposition. You’re “burning calories,” probably more than ever before, but it’s predominantly glucose/glycogen and precious muscle tissue. Net effect: you’re getting less lean. The hormonal balance has been tipped. You’ve been overtraining, and the all-important testosterone:cortisol ratio is lopsided. Generally speaking, a positive T:C ratio means more muscle and less fat, while a negative ratio means you’re either training too much, sleeping too little, or some combination of the two. Either way, too much cortisol will increase insulin resistance and fat deposition, especially around the midsection. Have you been working out like a madman only to see your definition decrease? You’re probably overtraining.

3. You’re lifting/sprinting/HIITing hard every single day.

The odd genetic freak could conceivably lift heavy, sprint fast, and engage in metabolic conditioning nearly every day of the week and adequately recover, without suffering ill effects. Chances are, however, you are not a genetic freak with Wolverine’s healing factor. Most people who maintain such a hectic physical schedule will not recover (especially if they have a family and/or a job). Performance will suffer, health will deteriorate, and everything they’ve worked to achieve will be compromised. Many professional athletes can practice for hours a day every day and see incredible results (especially if they are using performance enhancing substances), but you’re not a professional, are you?

4. You’re primarily an anaerobic/power/explosive/strength athlete, and you feel restless, excitable, and unable to sleep in your down time.

When a sprinter or a power athlete overtrains, the sympathetic nervous system dominates. Symptoms include hyperexcitability, restlessness, and an inability to focus (especially on athletic performance), even while at rest or on your off day. Sleep is generally disturbed in sympathetic-dominant overtrained athletes, recovery slows, and the resting heart rate remains elevated. Simply put, the body is reacting to a chronically stressful situation by heightening the sympathetic stress system’s activity levels. Most People who overtrain will see their sympathetic nervous system afflicted, simply because they lean toward the high-intensity, power, strength side.

Too much resistance training can cause sympathetic overtraining; too much endurance work can cause parasympathetic overtraining, which is characterized by decreased testosterone levels, increased cortisol levels, debilitating fatigue (both mental and physical), and a failure to lose body fat. While I tend to advise against any appreciable amount of endurance training, chronic fatigue remains an issue worthy of repeating. Being fit enough to run ten miles doesn’t mean that you now have to do it every day.

6. Your joints, bones, or limbs hurt.

In the lifts, limb pain can either be DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) or it can indicate poor technique or improper form; DOMS is a natural response that should go away in a day or two, while poor form is more serious and can be linked to overuse or overtraining. With regard to endurance training, if you creak, you wince at every step, and you dread staircases, it may be that you’ve run too far or too hard for too long. The danger here is that your daily endorphin high has over-ridden your natural pain receptors. You should probably listen to them more acutely.

7. You’re suddenly falling ill a lot more often.

Many things can compromise your immune system. Dietary changes (especially increased sugar intake), lack of Vitamin D/sunlight, poor sleep habits, mental stress are all usual suspects, but what if those are all locked in and stable? What if you’re eating right, getting plenty of sun, and enjoying a regular eight hours of solid sleep each night, but you find yourself getting sick? Nothing too serious, mind you. A nagging cough here, a little sniffle or two there, some congestion and a headache, perhaps. These were fairly normal before you went Primal, but they’ve returned. Your immune system may be suffering from the added stress of your overtraining. It’s an easy trap to fall into, simply because it’s often the natural progression for many accomplished athletes or trainees looking to increase their work or improve their performance: work harder, work longer. If you’ve recently increased your exercise output, keep track of those early morning sore throats and sneezes. Any increases may indicate a poor immune system brought on by overtraining.

8. You feel like crap the hours and days after a big workout.

Once you get into the swing of things, one of the great benefits of exercise is the post-workout feeling of wellness. You’ve got the big, immediate, heady rush of endorphins during and right after a session, followed by that luxurious, warm glow that infuses your mind and body for hours (and even days). It’s the best feeling, isn’t it? We all love it. What if that glow never comes, though? What if instead of feeling energetic and enriched after a workout, you feel sketchy and uncomfortable? As I said before, post-workout DOMS is completely normal, but feeling like death (mentally and physically) is not. Exercise generally elevates mood; if it’s having a negative effect on your mood, it’s probably too much.

Types of recovery

Keep in mind that there are two categories of recovery. There is immediate (short-term) recovery from a particularly intense training session or event, and there is the long-term recovery that needs to be build into a year-round training schedule. Both are important for optimal sports performance.

Short-term recovery, sometimes called active recovery occurs in the hours immediately after intense exercise. Active recovery refers to engaging in low-intensity exercise after workouts during both the cool-down phase immediately after a hard effort or workout as well as during the days following the workout. Both types of active recovery are linked to performance benefits.

Another major focus of recovery immediately following exercise has to do with replenishing energy stores and fluids lost during exercise and optimizing protein synthesis (the process of increasing the protein content of muscle cells, preventing muscle breakdown and increasing muscle size

This is also the time for soft tissue (muscles, tendons, ligaments) repair and the removal of chemicals that build up as a result of cell activity during exercise.

Getting quality sleep is also an important part of short-term recovery. Make should to get plenty of sleep, especially if you are doing hard training. In general, one or two nights of poor or little sleep won’t have much impact on performance, but consistently getting inadequate sleep can result in subtle changes in hormone levels, particularly those related to stress, muscle recovery and mood. While no one completely understands the complexities of sleep, some research indicates that sleep deprivation can lead to increased levels of cortisol (a stress hormone), decreased activity of human growth hormone (which is active during tissue repair), and decreased glycogen synthesis.

Long-term recovery techniques refer to those that are built in to a seasonal training program. Most well-designed training schedules will include recovery days and or weeks that are built into an annual training schedule. This is also the reason athletes and coaches change their training program throughout the year, add crosstraining, modify workouts types, and make changes in intensity, time, distance and all the other training variables.

Adaptation to Exercise

The Principle of Adaptation states that when we undergo the stress of physical exercise, our body adapts and becomes more efficient. It’s just like learning any new skill; at first it’s difficult, but over time it becomes second-nature. Once you adapt to a given stress, you require additional stress to continue to make progress.

There are limits to how much stress the body can tolerate before it breaks down and risks injury. Doing too much work too quickly will result in injury or muscle damage, but doing too little, too slowly will not result in any improvement. This is why training programs increase time and intensity at a planned rate and allow rest days throughout the program.

Balance Exercise with Rest and Recovery.

It is this alternation of adaptation and recovery that takes the athlete to a higher level of fitness. High-level athletes need to realize that the greater the training intensity and effort, the greater the need for planned recovery. Monitoring your workouts with a training log, and paying attention to how your body feels and how motivated you are is extremely helpful in determining your recovery needs and modifying your training program accordingly.

-> Increased injuries, excessive fatigue, higher resting heart rate, nagging muscle soreness that just won’t quit (careful with this one, because it’s common to be sore when trying out a new workout style), loss of motivation, delayed recovery, chills, generalized body pain, headaches, insomnia, even constipation and diarrhea

If you’re ever noticing a whole gang of these symptoms and you’ve been hitting the diet and workouts really hard for a long time, without much more than a day off here and there…you could be suffering from overtraining.

If you determine it’s a realistic possibility that you’re sinking in an overtraining sand trap, then please take some time off and let your body and your hormones recover.

I recommend a full 7-10 day workout vacation for anyone who feels overtrained. Make sure and take a good look at your diet plan too, and adjust for potential causative factors. A moderate increase in calories consumed during this recovery week would be a good idea.

If you’re slacking on veggies, quit.

One of the best things you can do to get lean, stay healthy and look better is to eat more vegetables.

Bump up your protein intake too, to promote the repair and rebuilding of lean muscle tissue. And always drink lots of water to promote a healthy liver and lymphatic system.

Even if you aren’t experiencing any symptoms of overtraining, it’s a good idea to take a scheduled recovery week every so often.

Just like the cheat day concept, it’s always a good idea to cycle your workouts and supplements as well.

Overexposure to the same thing (even if that same thing is fat-blasting, top-notch workouts) will eventually result in your body working against you.

Planned cheating on your diet, mini vacations from your workouts and cycling supplement usage, will all help to prevent plateaus and keep the results coming.

In terms of intense training, I’d suggest

If you train intensely for 5+ days per week take a recovery week every 4th week

Yes this means 3 weeks on and one week off

If you train 3-4 days per week with rest days between workouts I would suggest taking a recovery week every 12 weeks

Just because I beat the intensity factor to death, doesn’t mean there aren’t times where we’ll all need to take a break and let our bodies and our minds recover.

By the way, don’t worry about setbacks during this recovery period.

Here are some numbers to back this argument up

Here are some sample values in the loss of cardio-vascular fitness over time:
Up to 5 days — no loss
7 days off — 0.6%
14 days off — 2.7%
21 days off — 4.8%
28 days off (one month) — 6.9%
56 days (two months) — 15.3%

As u can see the loss doesn’t outweigh the gain.

Just like with strategic cheating, it may sound counter-intuitive, but in the end, the off time helps you more than it hurts you.

Rest is a huge part of the success equation, but it’s boring to talk about and not very sexy to read about don’t let that get in the way of your fat loss mission.

Recovery is the secret to success many people think I’m crazy for the amount I recover but I am also constantly surpassing these individuals in workouts. Resting allows the body a total reset, the muscles get to rebuild, the CNS gets to rest (this can take up to 7-10 days after a heavy lifting session), the body just feels better and more efficient. So please everyone take the time listen to me and take a rest week before your body decided to take one without you wanting it to (injury).

For our parents I have attached a link to an article on identifying overtraining in your young athlete here

You know how I feel about strength training…women should lift and they should lift heavy…no pink dumbbells! So when I saw this last week I knew it would be something to share with all of you. Hope you like it as much as I did. This comes from a UK site called Gubernatrix, the Joy of Strength Training. (Gubernatrix you say? I had to look it up too…”a female ruler.” So much for my four years at the University of Michigan.)

10 Good Reasons Women Should Stay Away From Weights

1. You might break a nail.

2. You could even bruise a male ego or two.

3. You’ll eat properly and still be able to lose fat. Work of the devil!

4. You’ll look more like an athlete and less like a runway model. Skeletal is sexy, right?

5. You’ll be able to lift heavy things without asking a man for help, thus upsetting the balance of the universe.

6. You will be seen in public without high heels.

7. You’ll grunt, sweat and feel sore. So unladylike!

8. You’ll be proud of your pert bum instead of being self conscious about it like a normal woman.

9. You’ll be more active and confident instead of sitting around looking pretty. What are you, some kind of feminist?

10. You’ll be stronger, leaner and sexier – and we all know where that can lead!

Why women should not run

I’m not sympathetic.

When I look at the fat guy in the gym wasting his time doing forearm curls to lose weight, I feel no sympathy. When a big tough meathead gets stapled to the bench by 365 pounds—after trying and failing with 315—I don’t feel any sympathetic pangs there, either. Even when I see a girl spend a half hour bouncing back and forth between the yes-no machines—the adductor and abductor units—only to have trouble walking the next day, I can’t muster even an iota of pathos.

Nobody told these people to do these things.

Then, however, I watch my friend Jessica running on the treadmill—day after day, year after year—like a madwoman, and going nowhere. Her body seems to get softer with every mile, and the softer she gets, the more she runs. For her, I feel sympathy, because the world has convinced her that running is the way to stay “slim and toned.”

There’s a Jessica in every gym. Spotting them is easy. They’re the women who run for an hour or more every day on the treadmill, setting new distance and/or time goals every week and month. Maybe they’re just interested in their treadmill workouts, maybe they’re training for their fifth fund-raising marathon, or maybe they’re even competing against runners in Finland via some Nike device. Doesn’t matter to me, because years of seeing my friend on the treadmill has exposed the results, which I’m not going to sugarcoat:

She’s still fat. Actually, she’s gotten fatter.

I’ve tried to rescue her from the clutches of cardio in the past, but my efforts didn’t work until a month ago, when she called to tell me that a blood test had confirmed her doctor’s suspicion: She had hypothyroidism, meaning her body no longer made enough thyroid hormone.

Her metabolism had slowed to a snail’s pace, and the fat was accumulating. This was her body rebelling. When Jessica asked for my advice, I told her to do two things: To schedule a second test for two weeks later, and to stop all the goddamned running until then.

Run Like Hell

I’m not here to pick on women or make fun of them. There are men out there who do the same thing, thinking cardio will wipe away the effects of their regular weekend beer binges. It’s more of a problem with women, though, and I’m targeting them for three very good reasons:

1.They’re often intensely recruited for fund-raisers like Team-In-Training, lured by the promises of slim, trim bodies and good health resulting from the months of cardio training leading to marathons—in addition to doing something for charity.

2.Some physique coaches prescribe 20-plus hours per week of pre-contest cardio for women, which essentially amounts to a part-time job.

3.Steady-state activities like this devastate the female metabolism. This happens with men, too, but in different ways.

I hate a lot of things about the fitness industry, but over-prescribed cardio would have to be at the very top of my list. I’m not talking about walking here, nor am I referring to appropriate HIIT cardio. This is about running, cycling, stair-climbing, or elliptical cardio done for hours at or above 65 percent of your max heart rate. The anaerobic threshold factors into this, obviously, but I’m painting gym cardio in very broad strokes here so everyone will understand what I’m railing against.

Science Wants You to Stop Running

Trashing steady-state cardio isn’t exactly a novel idea, and the better physique gurus figured at least a portion of this out years ago, when they started applying the no-steady-state-cardio rule to contest preparation. They failed, however, to point out the most detrimental effect of this type of training—one that applies specifically to women:

Studies—both clinical and observational—make a compelling case that too much cardio can impair the production of the thyroid hormone T3, its effectiveness and metabolism[1-11], particularly when accompanied by caloric restriction, an all too common practice. This is why many first or second-time figure and bikini competitors explode in weight when they return to their normal diets, and it’s why the Jessicas of the world can run for hours every week with negative results.

T3 is the body’s preeminent regulator of metabolism, by the way it throttles the efficiency of cells[12-19]. It also acts in various ways to increase heat production[20-21]. As I pointed out in previous articles, this is one reason why using static equations to perform calories-in, calories-out weight loss calculations doesn’t work.

When T3 levels are normal, the body burns enough energy to stay warm, and muscles function at moderate efficiency. When there’s too much thyroid hormone (hyperthyroidism), the body goes into a state where weight gain is almost impossible. Too little T3 (hypothyroidism), and the body accumulates body fat with ease, almost regardless of physical activity level. Women inadvertently put themselves into a hypothyroid condition when they perform so much steady-state cardio.

In the quest to lose body fat, T3 levels can offer both success and miserable failure because of the way it influences other fat-regulating hormones[22-31]. Women additionally get all the other negative effects of this, which I’ll cover below. Don’t be surprised here. This is a simple, sensible adaptation of a body that’s equipped to bear the full brunt of reproduction.

We Were Not Designed For This

Think about it this way: Your body is a responsive, adaptive machine that has evolved for survival. If you’re running on a regular basis, your body senses this excessive energy expenditure, and adjusts to compensate. Remember, no matter which way we hope the body works, its endgame is always survival. If you waste energy running, your body will react by slowing your metabolism to conserve energy. Decreasing energy output is biologically savvy for your body. Your body wants to survive longer while you do what it views as a stressful, useless activity. Decreasing T3 production increases efficiency and adjusts your metabolism to preserve energy immediately.

Nothing exemplifies this increasing efficiency better than the way the body starts burning fuel. Training consistently at 65 percent or more of your max heart rate adapts your body to save as much body fat as possible. After regular training, fat cells stop releasing fat the way they once did during moderate-intensity activities[32-33]. Energy from body fat stores also decreases by 30 percent[34-35]. To this end, your body sets into motion a series of reactions that make it difficult for muscle to burn fat at all[36-41]. Instead of burning body fat, your body takes extraordinary measures to retain it.

Still believe cardio is the fast track to fat loss?

That’s not all. You can still lose muscle mass. Too much steady-state cardio actually triggers the loss of muscle[42-45]. This seems to be a twofold mechanism, with heightened and sustained cortisol levels triggering muscle loss[46-56], which upregulates myostatin, a potent destroyer of muscle tissue[57]. Say goodbye to bone density, too, because it declines with that decreasing muscle mass and strength[58-64].

And long term health? Out the window, as well. Your percentage of muscle mass is an independent indicator of health[65]. You’ll lose muscle, lose bone, and lose health. Awesome, right?

When sewn together, these phenomena coordinate a symphony of fat gain for most female competitors after figure contests. After a month—or three—of 20-plus hours of cardio per week, fat burning hits astonishing lows, and fat cells await an onslaught of calories to store[66-72]. The worst thing imaginable in this state would be to eat whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted. The combination of elevated insulin and cortisol would make you fat, and it would also create new fat cells so you could become even fatter[73-80].

Seriously, Cut the Shit

I won’t name names, but I’ve seen amazing displays of gluttony from some small, trim women. Entire pizzas disappear, leaving only the flotsam of toppings that fell during the feeding frenzy. Appetizers, meals, cocktails and desserts—4000 calories worth—vanish at the Cheesecake Factory. There are no leftovers, and there are no crumbs. Some women catch this in time and stop the devastation, but others quickly swell, realizing that this supposed off-season look has become their every-season look.

And guess what they do to fix it? Double sessions of cardio.

This “cardio craze” is a form of insanity, and it’s on my hit list. I’m determined to kill it. There are better ways to lose fat, and there are better ways to look good. Your bikini body is not at the end of a marathon, and you won’t find it on a treadmill. In fact, it’s quite the opposite if you’re using steady-state cardio to get there. The show may be over, and the finish line crossed, but the damage to your metabolism has just begun.

Don’t want to stop running? Fine. Then stop complaining about how the fat won’t come off your hips, thighs, and ass. You’re keeping it there.

And as for Jessica, my friend whose dilemma sparked this article? She took my suggestion and cut out the cardio. Two weeks later, her T3 count was normal. Go figure.

1. The person who dreamed up the BMI said explicitly that it could not and should not be used to indicate the level of fatness in an individual.

The BMI was introduced in the early 19th century by a Belgian named Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet. He was a mathematician, not a physician. He produced the formula to give a quick and easy way to measure the degree of obesity of the general population to assist the government in allocating resources. In other words, it is a 200-year-old hack.

2. It is scientifically nonsensical.

There is no physiological reason to square a person’s height (Quetelet had to square the height to get a formula that matched the overall data. If you can’t fix the data, rig the formula!). Moreover, it ignores waist size, which is a clear indicator of obesity level.

3. It is physiologically wrong.

It makes no allowance for the relative proportions of bone, muscle and fat in the body. But bone is denser than muscle and twice as dense as fat, so a person with strong bones, good muscle tone and low fat will have a high BMI. Thus, athletes and fit, health-conscious movie stars who work out a lot tend to find themselves classified as overweight or even obese.

4. It gets the logic wrong.

The CDC says on its Web site that “the BMI is a reliable indicator of body fatness for people.” This is a fundamental error of logic. For example, if I tell you my birthday present is a bicycle, you can conclude that my present has wheels. That’s correct logic. But it does not work the other way round. If I tell you my birthday present has wheels, you cannot conclude I got a bicycle. I could have received a car. Because of how Quetelet came up with it, if a person is fat or obese, he or she will have a high BMI. But as with my birthday present, it doesn’t work the other way round. A high BMI does not mean an individual is even overweight, let alone obese. It could mean the person is fit and healthy, with very little fat.

5. It’s bad statistics.

Because the majority of people today (and in Quetelet’s time) lead fairly sedentary lives and are not particularly active, the formula tacitly assumes low muscle mass and high relative fat content. It applies moderately well when applied to such people because it was formulated by focusing on them. But it gives exactly the wrong answer for a large and significant section of the population, namely the lean, fit and healthy. Quetelet is also the person who came up with the idea of “the average man.” That’s a useful concept, but if you try to apply it to any one person, you come up with the absurdity of a person with 2.4 children. Averages measure entire populations and often don’t apply to individuals.

6. It is lying by scientific authority.

Because the BMI is a single number between 1 and 100 (like a percentage) that comes from a mathematical formula, it carries an air of scientific authority. But it is mathematical snake oil.

7. It suggests there are distinct categories of underweight, ideal, overweight and obese, with sharp boundaries that hinge on a decimal place.

That’s total nonsense.

8. It makes the more cynical members of society suspect that the medical insurance industry lobbies for the continued use of the BMI to keep their profits high.

Insurance companies sometimes charge higher premiums for people with a high BMI. Among such people are all those fit individuals with good bone and muscle and little fat, who will live long, healthy lives during which they will have to pay those greater premiums.

9. Continued reliance on the BMI means doctors don’t feel the need to use one of the more scientifically sound methods that are available to measure obesity levels.

Those alternatives cost a little bit more, but they give far more reliable results.

10. It embarrasses the U.S.

It is embarrassing for one of the most scientifically, technologically and medicinally advanced nations in the world to base advice on how to prevent one of the leading causes of poor health and premature death (obesity) on a 200-year-old numerical hack developed by a mathematician who was not even an expert in what little was known about the human body back then.

Okay so here is the 2013 Super Bowl board we didn’t sell 15 squares so what we have decided is those squares belong to keola Bodyworks and if they win we will buy new equipment a with the cash. the payouts are as follows game-170 1/2-85 1st &3rd 42.50

A theme is growing fast, and people are starting to learn. Thanks to my friends Camilo Guiterrez and Jovi Radtke for writing this great article.

Losing Body Fat without Losing Hours and Hours to Cardio

The first thing you should have is a game plan. Think about why you’re focusing on body fat instead of overall fitness and strength. Contrary to popular belief, the use of the ever-popular treadmill, stair-master, and elliptical machines that have taken over every commercial gym does not have the same impact that you’re taught to believe. Sure, you’re burning calories. Sure, you’re burning fat. Sure, you’re getting sweaty and working your body. But, you could be doing so much more if you just combine your fierce cardio focus with a little bit of weight-training.

It’s proven that the human body will continue to burn more calories at a higher rate AFTER your strength training workout is complete than it does after a cardio only workout. While the cardio only workout might burn more calories during the actual workout session, your burn session stops there. With an average weight-training workout, your body will continue to work for you for at least 36 hours post-workout. This means your metabolic rate will stay increased 36 times longer than it took you to workout in the first place! Think about it like this: if you weight-train three days a week, ideally MWF, your metabolic rate resets almost at the exact point when it’s time to hit the weights again. Meaning, your body is always burning calories at an elevated rate. Meaning, your body will lose fat at a faster rate. Meaning, you only need to work hard three hours a week instead of two hours everyday on a stationary machine. Meaning, you get your hours back.

Now, don’t get me wrong, movement is movement and any movement is better than not moving at all, just be careful on what your primary focus is. If you want fat loss above anything else and have a deep love for cardio, then try combining it with a 30 minute weight-lifting session three days a week. You’ll be surprised with how quickly you see results. So much so, that I’m almost positive you’ll say goodbye to the machines and hello to the regained hours of your life.

Weight lossSprinting is a must do if you want to lose weight. This is because sprinting stimulates HGH (human growth hormones) and helps build lean muscle. This in turn increases metabolism and results in fat loss. Once your metabolism increases it stays that way for a long time and you will be able to burn fat even if you take a break from working out for a while.
Time
Sprinting takes less time.You can do quick 100 meter or 50-meter sprints in 15 or 20 minutes. All you have to do is sprint (run as fast as your legs can take you) for 50 meters, walk till you get your breath back, then sprint again for 50 meters and so on. If you do 8 of these sprints your workout is taken care off.
Fat loss vs weight loss
Sprinting is a pure fat loss tool. Sprinting does not eat into your bones for weight loss, nor does it eat into muscle. In fact sprinting adds to bone density as well as lean muscle mass, and sprinters though they look lean probably weigh a lot more than they look.
Physical shapeA sprinters body will mostly be tight, athletic, toned, and lean. A sprinter mostly has flat tight abs and even female sprinters hardly have feminine curves, as their bodies are very athletic in order for them to run fast. A sprinter will always have sharp cuts and will come across muscular but lean. High bone density and lean muscle mass with very little body fat percentage makes up a sprinters body.

Weight loss
Jogging helps you lose weight too but relies on the calorie in – calorie out method. So if you eat food high in calories you can burn it off by jogging. But this would mean that you would have to continue jogging all your life to burn off what you have eaten. If you continue eating your regular diet and if you stop jogging you will gain weight.
Time
To burn the same amount of calories, you will need to jog for a lot longer. At least 45 minutes in a day of jogging will burn similar calories as compared to 10 minutes of sprints (as fast as you can run), thrice a week.
Fat loss vs weight lossRunning slowly for a longer period of time is more of a weight loss tool. Jogging burns the calories that you have consumed and jogging for long periods of time eats into your lean muscle mass. Therefore jogging must be supplemented with weight training and yoga to ensure that your muscle is conserved.
Physical shapeA long distance runner or a daily jogger on the other hand may not have firm and taut bodies. Many runners, who are not professional, but run for the love of running, risk being skinny fat. A long distance runner will come across as thin but may have higher percentage of body fat as compared to their weight because running depletes bone density and lean muscle mass. A jogger must therefore ensure that he or she supplements running with weight bearing exercises.

Fitness, what is it? Who is fit? I am going to be perfectly honest I have no idea what fitness is. Why? Which definition would you like? Biology says fitness is “The extent to which an organism is adapted to or able to produce offspring in a particular environment.” According to this I have no fitness, if we look at fitness according to Webster’s “Good health or physical condition, especially as the result of exercise and proper nutrition.”, if we asked an average American they would say fitness is “being skinny”. Hmmm. Where is one to turn when looking for a fit person is it the man who has 19 kids, is it the marathon runner, is it the runway model. Hell no, fitness is a very simple concept, fitness is ability. Let me say that again FITNESS=ABILITY. What do I mean? Fitness is equal to an individual ability to apply strength and conditioning to everyday life task. What good is being able to run 26 miles when you can’t pick up a 40lb bag of dog food, what good is a 1000 pound squat if you lose your breath on a walk to the mail box. Some of the most unfit people I know are “skinny” I call them my sisters, genetics allow them to be “skinny” and consume almost anything they want, but they are very incapable lacking muscle tone and strength, I consider them unfit (I do still love you two though).

Fitness is also uniquely individual based on ones needs. Unfortunately people forget this and think that the same program and loads that suitable for a 25 year only male are suitable for a 70 year old female. This is not a one size fits all thing. Some of my most proud moments are when clients come in and tell me how they were able to work in the garden; moving dirt, dig holes, and racking leaves all without feeling fatigued or have to take countless break to “catch their wind”, or when people tell me they were able to complete a 14 mile hike. Fitness cannot be measured by work capacity because that is not what fitness is. To be frank I don’t care how fast you can run a mile, how much you bench or how good you look, if you cannot practically apply your strength to everyday life. Can you run with the grand kid? Can you carry a sandbag when called upon? Can you use your strength in a meaningful way that is useful to you? If yes, congratulations you are fit. You are able to meet life’s daily task, while at the same time preventing disease and injury.

Sure we can increase ones fitness but what really is the point, if that person has no desire to do extraordinary feats of athletic ability, so often we concern ourselves with the minority (athletes) when we should be focusing on the majority (everyday people). I truly appreciate the fact that everyone comes in and works to the best of their abilities and never has to judge themselves against an individual they have never met. So in 2013 lets all just do one thing let’s increase our ability to practically apply strength the outside world, and become more FIT.

we asked for some ways to improve our product and here is what we got please take a few moment to enjoy the humor.

By not charging me extra for Yoga. Otherwise, I have no reasonable complaints. Except for the lack of fans. Why are there no fans? OMG it’s soo fucking hot. Why won’t the air move? WHY??? Whoa, look down there at all those 4s turned into 7s in just a year! So badass! So amusingly arbitrary. Unfortunately, probably take another 2 years at the current pace to get o 8s. I’m ok with that. Seriously, don’t be charging me for no yogas. Unless I get to do it with like a live Panda. I’d totally be down with an extra $20/m if I could do yoga with a live panda. They’re safe right? Google google… yeah, I think if the panda was doing the yogas it’d probably be safe. It’s not like yoga would make it all bitey. A wolverine would be cooler, but I bet a wolverine would would start the yogas all peaceful then get hungry doing a downward facing dog and fuck the whole place right up. If there were like a safe viewing spot though, I might pay to watch the wolverine yoga. At least once for sure if it was people I didn’t like or didn’t know.

Maybe someday we will find a panda to do some yoga but until then no Panda yoga. Have a great weekend everyone TGIF